Editing Vikings (section)

===Common misconceptions===
====Horned helmets====<!-- This section is linked from [[Minnesota Vikings]] -->
[[File:Viking Festival, Delamont County Park, June 2012 (17).JPG|thumb|Magnus Barelegs Viking Festival]]

Apart from two or three representations of (ritual) helmets—with protrusions that may be either stylised ravens, snakes, or horns—no depiction of the helmets of Viking warriors, and no preserved helmet, has horns. The formal, close-quarters style of Viking combat (either in shield walls or aboard "ship islands") would have made horned helmets cumbersome and hazardous to the warrior's own side.

Historians therefore believe that Viking warriors did not wear horned helmets; whether such helmets were used in Scandinavian culture for other, ritual purposes, remains unproven. The general misconception that Viking warriors wore horned helmets was partly promulgated by the 19th-century enthusiasts of ''[[Geatish Society|Götiska Förbundet]]'', founded in 1811 in [[Stockholm]].<ref name="Frank">{{cite book |last=Frank |first=Roberta |title=International Scandinavian and Medieval Studies in Memory of Gerd Wolfgang Weber |year=2000 |publisher=Ed. Parnaso |isbn=978-88-86474-28-3 |page=487 |url=https://www.scribd.com/doc/51267328/Frank-Invention-of-Horned-Helmet |access-date=17 September 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140413142627/http://www.scribd.com/doc/51267328/Frank-Invention-of-Horned-Helmet |archive-date=13 April 2014 |url-status=live }}</ref> They promoted the use of Norse mythology as the subject of high art and other ethnological and moral aims.

The Vikings were often depicted with winged helmets and in other clothing taken from [[Classical antiquity]], especially in depictions of Norse gods. This was done to legitimise the Vikings and their mythology by associating it with the Classical world, which had long been idealised in European culture.

The latter-day ''mythos'' created by [[National Romanticism|national romantic ideas]] blended the Viking Age with aspects of the [[Nordic Bronze Age]] some 2,000 years earlier. Horned helmets from the Bronze Age were shown in [[petroglyph]]s and appeared in archaeological finds (see [[Bohuslän]] and [[Vikso]] helmets). They were probably used for ceremonial purposes.<ref>[http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mhornedhelmet.html Did Vikings really wear horns on their helmets?] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20041211224330/http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mhornedhelmet.html |date=11 December 2004 }}, The Straight Dope, 7 December 2004. Retrieved 14 November 2007.</ref>

[[File:Viking Arms and Armor (9302360544).jpg|thumb|Modern "Viking" helmets]]
Cartoons like ''[[Hägar the Horrible]]'' and ''[[Vicky the Viking]]'', and sports kits such as those of the [[Minnesota Vikings]] and [[Canberra Raiders]] have perpetuated the myth of the horned helmet.<ref>{{cite news |title=Did Vikings wear horned helmets? |url=https://www.economist.com/blogs/newsbook/2013/02/economist-explains-did-vikings-wear-horned-helmets |newspaper=The Economist|access-date=10 April 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140413141629/http://www.economist.com/blogs/newsbook/2013/02/economist-explains-did-vikings-wear-horned-helmets |archive-date=13 April 2014 |url-status=live }}</ref>

Viking helmets were conical, made from hard leather with wood and metallic reinforcements for regular troops. The iron helmet with mask and mail was for the chieftains, based on the previous [[Vendel]]-age helmets from central Sweden. The only original Viking helmet discovered is the [[Gjermundbu helmet]], found in Norway. This helmet is made of iron and has been dated to the 10th century.<ref>{{cite web |title=The Gjermundbu Find – The Chieftain Warrior |url=http://nvg.org.au/article.php?story=20050923081703965&mode=print |access-date=10 April 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140215064628/http://nvg.org.au/article.php?story=20050923081703965&mode=print |archive-date=15 February 2014 |url-status=live }}</ref>

====Barbarity====

The image of wild-haired, dirty savages sometimes associated with the Vikings in popular culture is a distorted picture of reality.<ref name="Roesdahl, pp. 9–22"/> Viking tendencies were often misreported, and the work of Adam of Bremen, among others, told largely disputable tales of Viking savagery and uncleanliness.<ref>Williams, G. (2001) [https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ancient/vikings/evidence_01.shtml How do we know about the Vikings?] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060816165251/http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ancient/vikings/evidence_01.shtml |date=16 August 2006 }} [[BBC]].co.uk. Retrieved 14 November 2007.</ref>

====Use of skulls as drinking vessels====
There is no evidence that Vikings [[Skull cup|drank out of the skulls]] of vanquished enemies. This was a misconception based on a passage in the [[skald]]ic poem [[Krákumál]] speaking of heroes drinking from ''ór bjúgviðum hausa'' (branches of skulls). This was a reference to [[drinking horn]]s, but was mistranslated in the 17th century<ref>By Magnús Óláfsson, in Ole Worm, ''Runar seu Danica Litteratura antiquissima, vulgo Gothica dicta'' (Copenhagen 1636).</ref> as referring to the skulls of the slain.<ref>E. W. Gordon, ''An Introduction to Old Norse'' (2nd edition, Oxford 1962) pp. lxix–lxx.</ref>